Standing Up to the Eiffel Tower

In a low-rise city, a Parisian apartment is remodeled to take full advantage of its unusually tall perch

By

J.S. Marcus

Updated Feb. 10, 2013 4:23 a.m. ET

Paris

Every few years, Parisian real-estate developer Cédric Fabre likes to move apartments. He does it for profit and for the fun. His latest conquest, and newest home, is a 2,200-square-foot, eight-room apartment on Avenue George V, steps off the Champs-Élysées.

Towering Views

Views from the master bedroom bring the Eiffel Tower up close and personal. Mr. Fabre said the view was a key factor in his deciding to move here. Céline Clanet for The Wall Street Journal

In a city of low-rises, the apartment sits up high, giving it an unusual, lateral view of the Eiffel Tower that is both striking and surprisingly intimate. The sprawling three-bedroom, 3½-bathroom apartment is the result of a previous owner's decision to combine two neighboring apartments; together, they take up a sizable expanse of the 10th floor of the Résidence George V, a 1960s apartment building that's nearly twice as tall as a typical residential building in Paris. The building—whose staff still recall when Sophia Loren and her husband, Carlo Ponti, had a triplex in the building's early years—looks a bit out of place in the neighborhood. Its unusual curvaceous facade subtly shapes the interiors.

The apartment's centerpiece is a windowed series of rooms—there is no hallway—that fills up with the Paris skyline. The furniture, much of it custom-made, is a high-end reimagining of Scandinavian modernism. The interior is filled with white, beige and gray surfaces, including a white marble kitchen floor, a custom-built pale-oak dining room table and the cream-colored cotton-and-linen upholstery on the salon sofa. Many of the individual pieces also have rounded edges, recalling the curves of the building.

ENLARGE

Cédric Fabre is shown sitting in his apartment.
Céline Clanet for the Wall Street Journal

Mr. Fabre, 46, bought the combined apartments for a little over $8 million in 2010. "I had two criteria," he said. "The view and the address." The building is right across from the Four Seasons Hotel George V, one of the city's best-known luxury hotels, and its street is the western boundary of the so-called Golden Triangle, a section of the eighth arrondissement that's home to some of the world's most exclusive stores. The Louis Vuitton flagship store is just around the corner.

Mr. Fabre then engaged his friend, Parisian interior designer Pierre Yovanovitch, to redo the apartment from scratch. "I never saw such an ugly apartment," says Mr. Yovanovitch, of the previous space, distinguished by a few large, closed rooms, decorated in what he calls "a dark Russian style." The original layout, marked by a central hallway, isolated its residents from the impressive view by cutting off the windows from much of the interior.

Mr. Yovanovitch, a 46-year-old former fashion designer who collaborated with Mr. Fabre on his prior apartment across the Seine, started out by building new walls and redoing the size of just about every room. In order to compensate for the rather low 8-foot ceilings, Mr. Yovanovitch created a series of smaller spaces that could be placed against the array of windows that swerve with the building.

The George V project was marked by a few crucial compromises. The final version has a rather small galley kitchen separated from the dining room by the salon. "My first idea was to have the kitchen, then the dining room, and then the living room," says Mr. Fabre. Instead, the foyer leads right into the salon; Mr. Yovanovitch believed it was more important for visitors to have that impression, rather than tramp through a dining room. "Now I am very happy," says Mr. Fabre.

Mr. Yovanovitch also had to make compromises. His initial instinct, inspired by the low ceilings and 1960s trappings, was to give the apartment a harsher, more industrial style, using materials like concrete. Mr. Fabre's response was that it would be interesting, but could restrict the resale value for buyers who wanted a slice of Paris rather than a version of New York City.

Both Mr. Fabre and Mr. Yovanovitch are fond of Scandinavian art and design, but that minimalist style doesn't directly translate into French. Mr. Yovanovitch's twist on a Scandinavian aesthetic preserves the clean lines but emphasizes craftsmanship in the form of bespoke furniture and carpets.

Mr. Fabre estimates he invested around $2 million in the remodel and décor, a process that took about a year. Last April, he was ready to move in.

As is his practice, Mr. Fabre says he plans to sell the flat in a few years, and is hoping for a price around $12 million. And as usual, he says, he will sell or get rid of much of the contents, including the carefully designed furnishings.

How does Mr. Fabre regard these domestic sojourns and their unsentimental denouements? Is it like falling in and then out of love? Or like staying in a grand hotel suite for a few years? No, he says, "it's like home every time."

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.